At least you're asking questions & doing a bit of research, so you're moving in the right direction!

It's tough to decide, there's a lot of great gear out there, it can be overwhelming. Especially when it has a $1,000 price tag. You feel pressure to make the right choice. But worse case, even if you end up not liking whatever you buy, you'll learn a lot from the experience & you can always sell it & move on.

Sure, why wouldn't it be. Got one for a steal myself last week, 500 euro with maxed out memory in factory condition. Haven't regretted it yet. Immediatly recognized the hd from my 1000 (which I'm gonna sell now) so I got all my beats, samples and chopped up breaks ready to go. The option to integrate a hd and having USB make it a no-brainer for me. Very usefull machine in 2018!

Yes they go for bargain prices, i love 2500 more than my new live which has dope modern features but in the end doesnt sound as good and feels pretty toy with the touch screen. really need both +sp303 and a digitakt to be happy tho. get a live when theyre cheaper unless you really need battery power

I often find that my inspiration can flow more free when i use the mpc-2500 (or mpc-1000, doesn´t matter). I recommend this machine to all my friends, and they all laugh at me, but it is them that is missing out . Go get it!

Ok, I’m gonna give you a link to my post in Other Samplers and Beat Boxes section cuz I saw the other thread and you did mention portability. This thing has a 128 pad grid but you can hook up a 16 pad controller to it if ya gotta have 16 squares and are good at finger drumming. It fits perfectly in my Magma case for my Roland Boutique synths with the little 25 key keyed attached to give you an idea of how small it is. Takes the same kind of battery as most Vape’s do, so readily available and about 6 hours on battery

I was looking at getting an MPC 1000 for a portable unit back in 2014, then went nuts and bought a huge mv8800, then a 2nd mv8800 which was new old stock cuz I loved it so much, but then came back to looking at the MPC 1000’s again for portable. Then they announced the Live and X and I waited to see how support and promised features were. Was still waiting when I watched a Superbooth 2018 video on this Synthstrom Deluge and it’s upcoming arranger mode for songs which looks much like Ableton in a hardware box. I bought it last month and have experienced zero issues with it and support is amazing on it from the company.

It does not do slicing beats as good as an MPC or mv8000/8800, but that might get addressed in an update. It streams from SD card and workflow is crazy fast and rewarding.

I’m still considering a Live if they can do clip launches, stretching, and a few their things as well as this Synthstrom Deluge one day, but no hurry on that for me. This has been a game changer to the way I make music and is hands down the most creative box I ever bought. Not as deep as my mv8800’s, but I like it more already and I absolutely love my mv8800’s.

I got two Korg padKontrol 16 pad controllers for finger drumming and use the padKontrol’s previously with Geist software, then Beatmeker 2 and now BeatMaker 3 on iPad. If ya like Akai pads though, plenty of options. I got an MPC Element controller that also works good, but padKontrol has great options for midi maps and easy to map to different software.

I hope so. Got one last year. Got for about $500. CD drive was broken but had upgrades, hard drive, 128 RAM, JJOS and big screen. PO had it loaded with nice sounds. Lots more sounds available. I like that there's minimal menu diving. When I turn it on I can load up the sequence and program I want to play or work on in about 30 seconds. Building a drum kit is easy. Sounds good, nice big pads to beat on. A bunch of outputs on the back which some newer stuff doesn't seem to have.

Only drawback that I see is you might need a bunch of manuals and books to sort out the more complicated features depending on operating system. It does a lot so there's a lot to learn (I plan to read those books and manuals) , but things that seem difficult turn out to be easy. But if you just want to make beats its easy and fun to use.

I have the same question, but not because of features or sound or workflow. I think the 2500 would fit my needs just fine.

I'm wondering if it is "okay ... 2018" because I read a lot of posts here and elsewhere about hardware problems and repairs due to age. - Is it worth it when you know all the cr*p that can happen quite soon after you buy it? - When did they cease production?- Is it only a matter of heavy use instead of age? Some are sold with "hardly ever used" kind of tagline, and some I'm inclined to believe...

John DowJones wrote:I have the same question, but not because of features or sound or workflow. I think the 2500 would fit my needs just fine.

I'm wondering if it is "okay ... 2018" because I read a lot of posts here and elsewhere about hardware problems and repairs due to age. - Is it worth it when you know all the cr*p that can happen quite soon after you buy it? - When did they cease production?- Is it only a matter of heavy use instead of age? Some are sold with "hardly ever used" kind of tagline, and some I'm inclined to believe...

It came out in 2005 i believe. i bought mine brand-new in 2007 for $1200 standard. After fully upgrading it I've basically dropped $1100 in it (jjos/bigger screen/ pads and risers/ buttons / cd ROM / RAM / larger HD 128gb / and pcb board all of this isn't necessary but if i were to go back in time id do it all over again.

I know this is an old thread and you've no doubt long made your decision but I wanted to throw in my two pence.

I picked up mine in 2015, added a SSD, installed jjos and it's been the heart of my setup ever since.

What works for me is likely different from you though.

I'd been trying to move away from the computer and create a more natural workflow and had started buying external synth and samplers for my home studio.

The MPC 2500 has four midi outs and two midi in's which is brilliant, potentially you could hook up 64 midi instruments to this bad boy and sequence them all + 32 voices on the MPC.

It's modern enough that I can hook it up via USB to backup the internal hard drive to the computer or copy samples over if I don't want to sample them in unlike earlier MPCs.

Mine is 13 years old now though and some of the buttons are a bit problematic and don't trigger until given a few good jabs. Replacement buttons are available as well as the whole PCB boards if you don't fancy soldering new buttons on yourself though but this is something to bare in mind now.

There is a learning curve if you're coming from a different way of working too but honestly, the 2500 is one of my favourite purchases and I can't see myself ever parting with it.